Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep Peep it never stops

How much noise can one small day old peachick make? You wouldn't believe how much. Happy to come home from a conference to find one hatched peachick in the incubator. I quickly moved it to the small brooder I setup before going to my 2 day conference so it would be ready.

Hope some of the other eggs hatch today but no signs so far. "Quaint Irene" as I will call this chick (hopefully she's a hen) apparently has imprinted on me and while that's pretty cool, it's gonna be a long couple weeks till she goes outside. She goes off every time I walk away from the brooder. If I stand right next to her or put my hand in the brooder she will stop peeping...give a couple of chirps as if to say "where have you been....I was calling you...) and settles down for a nap. Usually leaning up against the glass where I put my and or against my hand if it put it in the brooder.

The plan is to keep one purple and one 2 blue hens. Hopefully Quaint Irene will turn out to be a hen and I will get to keep her. I'll add pics to this post later.

The Circle of Life

Having lost my best hen (Lucia - see prior post) and doubting my own skills at incubating the 12 eggs from my purple hen I was especially pleased to see Mapp (the purple hen) setting on a clutch of 5 eggs.

finally she gets with the program. Thought motherhood was beyond her but it looks like she's stepping into the top of the pecking order. Lucia the blue hen was definitely at the top of the pecking order. Even Georgie moved out of her way....Especially is she was escorting her chicks around.

With luck the 3 remaining blue chicks will have purple friends to play with. Hopefully some out of the incubator in the next couple days and from Mapp's clutch in about 4 weeks.

Nature....It's all about balance.....

The Part That's Not Easy

The worst part of raising any kind of animal is when you loose one. Yesterday I came home after being out of town for a couple days for business to find my best hen (Lucia) hanging from the aviary netting.

She must have been spooked by something and got her foot caught in the netting and was unable to get free. Her 3 remaining chicks are in a brooder and hopefully one or more will be a hen.

Guess my lesson here is to consider lights in the aviary (to discourage predators) and make sure that all birds have their flight feathers clipped. I've not done that recently and they are getting a little too much lift. If you've not done this it's very easy.

Flight feathers will grow back so you have to do it a couple times a year. On India Blue's they are the longer brown wing feathers. Be sure to only clip one side. The goal it to keep them off balance so they don't have a lot of lift. If you clip both sides they will learn to "flap harder" and not be discouraged to fly.

Of course DO NOT clip your free rangers. They need to fly.

She just keeps laying and laying

Mapp my purple hen just keeps laying and laying. Unfornutately she's not quite got the hang of nesting. Everytime it looks like she's building a nest she abandons it and drops another egg from the purch or in the yard.

So off to the incubator they go. Hopefully I'll have better luck this year than last.

Purple Boy Finds a New Home

Both Georgie (he's showing off in the background) and Purple Boy (on the perch ) are both gonna be happy with the new living arrangement. Purple Boy is getting a little too big to share space with Georgie, Lucia and the new chicks. He's also starting to show off a little more than Georgie likes.


Purple Boy has found a new home with a volunteer firefighter and his family here in Kentucky. Good luck Jay.......hope your family is happy with the surprise.

Well they finally hatched.

Lucia my India Blue hen finally hatched her clutch of eggs. I was hoping for a little better hatch rate but 5 is better than none.




Here is the empty nest with the unhatched eggs